Loaning out Costa was a big mistake. I don't think Ribery can start anymore.

I still can't belive we don't have a back up striker. crazy!

I think it's enough for Ancelotti, no more to say. Costa right now seems lost in Juve and might return next season as your wish He's just a mediocre player, and only a genius like Pep can help him develop.

rthebest wrote:the problem is and has been the midfield since Ancelotti took over and specially beginning of this season. They simply cannot create the link between defence and attack.

I wasn't able to watch the game, but looking at our lineup, it seems we fielded the weakest possible midfield. We had available Rudy, Thiago, Kimmich, Tolisso, and Martinez, and we played Tolisso and Martinez together for some reason. Martinez hasn't really played midfield in years and didn't play well there in the preseason, and Tolisso has never impressed me in the slightest. More importantly, neither of them are registas, and they aren't capable of dictating play and creating a link between the defense and the attack. In fact, this is the only possible midfield that we could have played that doesn't include a regista.*

We could have played a Thiago-Rudy pairing(a Kroos-Rudy midfield two was quite impressive for Germany the one time it has been tried), or we could have dropped one of them(probably Rudy) and played with Kimmich in midfield and Rafinha as right back. We also could have dropped Ribery or Robben and added James, which would also help our midfield because we would have two attacking players(Muller and James) that often drop back and help out in midfield. Any of those changes would have created a greater link between the defense and attack, and all of them would offer more protection to the defense. Moreover, all of them would help protect the defense more than the horrid midfield we got.

Fix the midfield and everything else will fall into place. Thoughts?

*Notably, we were really horrible in preseason when we tried playing without a regista.

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